Major Garrett Shreds Josh Earnest Over WH Spin On Immigration Delay

"Not doing what he said he was going to do on the timeline he said he was going to do it is an act courage?"

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest is swimming in deep water trying to spin the President's decision to delay executive action on immigration as some sort of self-less act of political courage, and CBS correspondent Major Garrett took him to task for it on Monday to excellent effect.

"Not doing what he said he was going to do on the timeline he said he was going to do it is an act courage?"

Garrett presses Earnest repeatedly on the idea, and cuts right through the administration's spin to what is blazingly obvious: the President's inaction is tailor-made for the political consultants who are surely chewing the party's ear off over vulnerable Democrats who don't want to have to own another unpopular decree by this unpopular President.

Earnest is trying to pitch the line that President Obama is, at cost to his own political fortunes, doing what is necessary to ensure the "sustainability" of any action taken on immigration. But this transparent self-aggrandizement doesn't impress the press corps any more than it impresses even rabid left-wing bloggers, who find the excuses simply do not pass the smell test.

The President isn't fooling anyone. He wants to help democrats get elected in red states by not making them own an immigration plan that will surely be crippling to their poll numbers. The press isn't falling for it, and the left isn't either. Come November, we'll see if the voters fell for it at the ballot box.